Manuel Neuer impresses once more

German international goalkeeper Manuel Neuer last night chose the biggest of all club football stages, the UEFA Champions League, to show what he is capable off. The FC Schalke 04 keeper made seven/eight exceptional saves in a one-sided game which Schalke went on to lose 0-2 as Manchester United were mainly in control.

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was quite impressed by Neuer's goalkeeping and told journalists after the game, "I think in my time at United this was the finest display of goalkeeping against us. I'm sure there were other feats but tonight we saw a very good one."

Followers of the beautiful game who didn't know what makes Manuel Neuer currently the best goalkeeper in the world had a chance to see it for themselves. The Schalke captain was the only player of the royal blues who was world class and who could match the Manchester United players.

And one now would also understand why German giants FC Bayern Munich and Manchester United have been after signing Neuer though it seems done and dusted that Neuer will be moving south to the Bavarian giants for the next season. Even Sir Alex hinted at the post-match press conference that he couldn't put a bid in with Schalke as the player was already been sold.

Neuer is stepping into the footsteps of continuing a great German tradition of exceptional goalkeeping talent which was started by Sepp Maier in the 1970s and continued through the decades with Harald 'Toni' Schumacher, Bodo Illgner, Andreas Koepke, Oliver Kahn, Jens Lehmann at the top level.